Presenting Kevin McCloud’s new Green Heroes for 2018

Kevin McCloud’s ‘Green Heroes’ will return to Grand Designs Live at the NEC, proudly sponsored by Anglian Home Improvements from 10 – 14 October 2018. These select brands and products have been hand-picked by design guru Kevin McCloud, to showcase the best eco-innovations, for home builders, owners and design enthusiasts and will sit at the heart of the exhibition, providing a platform for ecoconscious creators to present their latest innovative designs.

Recognised as the face of the Grand Designs brand, Kevin McCloud has great insight into the latest technologies, materials and ground-breaking sustainable practices at work in the construction and interiors market. Building on his experience, Kevin McCloud’s Green Heroes, is inspired by his passion for state-of-the-art eco-friendly product design and green building products.

This year, three of Kevin’s Green Heroes; Bamboo Bicycle Club, Lucentia Design, Corrugated Hemp Fibres by Margent Farm, will offer live demonstrations of their products, giving visitors the chance to see these eco-innovations come to life as they watch the craftsmanship that goes into creating the products and interact with the designers behind the brands.

See below this year’s list of brands that have been carefully curated by Kevin:

Woven material made from recycled cassette tapes Tackling the issue of the obsolete nature of past technologies, Rehyphen uses the tape from cassette tapes, manipulating them into a durable and aesthetically pleasing material which can be used for a variety of items from art to fashion. This upcycling initiative aims to reduce and eliminate e-waste while giving life to a new product.

A non-electric personal washing machine Requiring no electricity, reducing home carbon emissions and reducing water usage for each wash load, Drumi by Yirego, could change the way we do laundry forever. Creating ethical, eco-friendly household products that both better everyday living and provide simple solutions for your household tasks; Yirego’s products all embody the ethos to ‘Consume Less’.

A biological, fully edible, fully recyclable packaging solution SCOBY can be grown by producers to wrap their products and bring them to clients with zero waste. This edible and recyclable product is created from waste fermentation, which takes place in shallow containers. SCOBY looks to reinvent traditional food conservation techniques to fit to the modern world, fighting addiction to single-used plastic and food waste.

An award-winning lighting brand Founded on the premise that good design can help mitigate climate change, perfectly echoing the ethos behind Kevin’s Green Heroes, Tala believe that beautiful objects and efficient technology belong together. Combining the best of British design with superior componentry, selecting methods and materials on their environmental impact, and remaining committed to reducing carbon emissions in the atmosphere.

Recyclable, build-it yourself, sustainable and stylish bicycles Returning Green Hero brand, Bamboo Bicycle Club, are committed to enabling people to build cuttingedge bikes that are sustainable and can be completely recycled after many years of usage. Academic research credits bamboo as an ideal material for bicycle building, Bamboo has ideal properties, with vibration dampening effects, any bumps in the road seem to be effortlessly absorbed. Giving everyone the opportunity to build a bike from scratch, regardless of being young or old, a cycle enthusiast or beginner, an experienced mechanic or novice.

Original Design For Partitioning, Glazing, Walls, Facades, utilising recycled materials Using plastics at the end of their useful lives, returning Green Hero brand Lucentia Deigns recycle them into new sheet material. Working with acrylics, polycarbonates and vinyl creating beautiful panels with a myriad of finishes. Their latest polycarbonate sheet encapsulates shredded £5 notes that have been taken off the market.

Affordable eco-structures with plant-based material Using hemp within the structure of a building is carbon negative, due to the carbon dioxide within the hemp plant being locked away for the life of the life of building. Corrugated Hemp in a building is better for insulation, cost and better for Planet Earth.